TEHRAN: The embassy of Azerbaijan in Tehran resumed its work Monday after more than a year of negotiations between the two countries to ease tensions, Iran’s semi-official media outlets reported.
A source in the Azeri embassy in Tehran told The Associated Press that the embassy has resumed its operations in the Iranian capital, but said it won’t be officially announced until the Iranian foreign ministry confirms the development.
But an Azeri website news.az Monday quoted Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry as saying that its embassy in Iran has restarted work at a new address in Tehran. The report added that the embassy reopened following negotiations between Azerbaijan and Iran.
Relations between Tehran and Baku, which have been tense for a long time, soured further after a gunman in January 2023 stormed Azerbaijan’s embassy in Iran’s capital, killing its security chief and wounding two guards.
Iran said the attack was based on a personal cause, and said the gunman’s wife had disappeared after a visit to the embassy, but Azeri President Ilham Aliyev called the assault a “terrorist attack.” Baku accused Tehran of supporting hard-line extremists who tried to overthrow its government, a charge Tehran denied.
In April 2023, Azerbaijan expelled four Iranian diplomats from Baku. A month later, Iran expelled four Azeri diplomats, who had been working in Azerbaijan’s Embassy in Tehran and its consulate in the northwestern city of Tabriz.
The attack spiked long-simmering tensions between the two neighboring countries.
Relations between the two also remain tense because Azerbaijan in March 2023 opened an embassy in Israel. Azerbaijan also maintains close ties to Israel, which Tehran views as its top regional enemy. Iran has repeatedly opposed improving relations between Azerbaijan and Israel.
Azerbaijan borders Iran’s northwest and belonged to the Persian Empire until the early 19th century. There are over 12 million Ethnic Azeris in Iran who represent the Islamic Republic’s largest minority group. That means maintaining good relations with Baku is even more important for Tehran.
There have been tensions between the two countries as Azerbaijan and Armenia have fought over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Iran also wants to maintain its 44-kilometer (27-mile) border with landlocked Armenia — something that could be threatened if Azerbaijan seizes new territory through warfare.
Iran-Azerbaijan’s relations improved during the era of the late Ebrahim Raisi. In May, Iran and Azerbaijan inaugurated a dam of Qiz Qalasi, or Castel of Girl in Azeri, on a joint border river in northwest Iran. Aliyev attended the inauguration.
During the ceremony, Raisi said that the relationship between Tehran and Baku is beyond neighboring and is “unbreakable.”
Raisi died in a helicopter crash — that also killed the country’s foreign minister and others — just after the inauguration ceremony. His body was found a day after the crash.
Azerbaijan reopens its embassy in Iran as the two countries try to ease tensions
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Azerbaijan reopens its embassy in Iran as the two countries try to ease tensions
- Relations between Tehran and Baku, which have been tense for a long time, soured further after a gunman in January 2023 stormed Azerbaijan’s embassy in Tehran
Hezbollah says fired ‘intense rocket barrages’ at Israeli positions
- Israeli military confirmed that around 55 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanese territory
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said it launched several rocket salvos at Israeli army positions in the annexed Golan Heights on Tuesday “in response” to Israeli strikes on eastern Lebanon the previous day.
Hezbollah fighters launched “intense rocket barrages” at two Israeli army positions in the occupied Golan Heights “in response to the Israeli enemy’s attack on the Bekaa” Valley — which a source close to Hezbollah said targeted weapons depots in the eastern region.
The Israeli military confirmed that around 55 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanese territory.
“Some of the projectiles were intercepted, and the rest fell in open areas. No injuries were reported,” the military said in a statement, adding that some of the rockets had ignited fires.
The military said its forces struck one of the launchers from which the rockets were launched.
The latest salvos from the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement came after Israel struck weapons depots deep inside eastern Lebanon on Monday.
That Israeli strike came after a soldier in northern Israel was killed by Hezbollah fire, the latest death in 10 months of cross-border exchanges between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israeli forces.
The violence has killed 585 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also including at least 128 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, 23 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed, according to army figures.
Fears of an escalation have mounted since Hezbollah and Iran vowed to respond after an Israeli strike on Beirut last month killed a top Hezbollah commander, Fuad Shukr, shortly before an attack in Tehran blamed on Israel killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Israel community announces death of 79-year-old hostage in Gaza
- Palestinian militants had abducted Munder, his wife, daughter and grandson during the October 7 attack by Hamas on southern Israel
Jerusalem: An Israeli community announced on Tuesday the death of hostage Avraham Munder in the Gaza Strip, saying he was “physically and mentally tortured” in captivity.
“Kibbutz Nir Oz announces with great sadness the murder of the late Avraham Munder, 79, in captivity in Gaza after suffering physical and mental torture for months,” the community said in a statement.
Palestinian militants had abducted Munder, his wife, daughter and grandson during the October 7 attack by Hamas on southern Israel.
The other family members were released during the single, week-long truce of the war last November, while his son was killed on the day of the attack.
The attack led by Hamas militants resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized 251 people, 111 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 40 the military and Israeli officials say are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 40,139 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, which does not provide details of civilian and militant deaths.
Blinken to head to Egypt on Gaza truce push
- Afterwards, he will head to a meeting with Qatar’s emir in Doha, the scene of ceasefire talks last week
- Both Egypt and Qatar are working alongside the United States to broker a truce in the 10-month Gaza conflict
TEL AVIV: Top US diplomat Antony Blinken was due to travel to Egypt on Tuesday for talks on a Gaza ceasefire after saying Israel had accepted a US “bridging proposal” for a deal and urging Hamas to do the same.
Blinken, on his ninth visit to the Middle East since the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack triggered the war with Israel, was scheduled to fly from Tel Aviv to El Alamein, the Mediterranean city famous for a World War II battle in 1942, to speak to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi at his summer palace.
Afterwards, he will head to a meeting with Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, in Doha, the scene of ceasefire talks last week.
Both Egypt and Qatar are working alongside the United States to broker a truce in the 10-month Gaza conflict.
Washington put forward the latest proposal last week after the talks in Doha.
Blinken said Monday he had “a very constructive meeting” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who “confirmed to me that Israel accepts the bridging proposal.”
Ahead of those talks, Hamas called on the mediators to implement the framework set out by US President Joe Biden in late May, rather than hold more negotiations.
The movement said on Sunday that the current US proposal “responds to Netanyahu’s conditions” and leaves him “fully responsible for thwarting the efforts of the mediators.”
Earlier on Monday, the US secretary of state had said: “This is a decisive moment — probably the best, maybe the last, opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a ceasefire and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security.”
Months of on-off negotiations with US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have failed to produce an agreement.
Israel and Hamas have blamed each other for delays in reaching an accord that diplomats say would help avert a wider conflagration in the Middle East that could draw in Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“There is, I think, a real sense of urgency here, across the region, on the need to get this over the finish line and to do it as soon as possible,” Blinken said.
The Biden administration is under domestic pressure over Gaza, with pro-Palestinian protests taking place outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday.
Biden said in his farewell speech to the convention that the protesters “have a point,” adding that “a lot of innocent people are being killed, on both sides.”
Israel and Hamas have traded blame for delays in reaching a truce deal.
Hamas insisted on “a permanent ceasefire and a comprehensive (Israeli) withdrawal from the Gaza Strip,” saying Netanyahu wanted to keep Israeli forces at several strategic locations within the territory.
Western ally Jordan, hostage supporters who protested in Tel Aviv during Blinken’s visit, and Hamas itself have called for pressure on Netanyahu in order for an agreement to be reached.
Far-right members crucial to the prime minister’s governing coalition oppose any truce.
The October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 40,139 people, according to the territory’s health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.
Out of 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s attack, 111 are still held in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.
The Biden framework would freeze fighting for an initial six weeks while Israeli hostages are exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and humanitarian aid enters Gaza.
Netanyahu said on Monday that negotiators were aiming to “release a maximum number of living hostages” in the first phase of any ceasefire.
Why is Israel demanding control over 2 Gaza corridors in the ceasefire talks?
- Philadelphi corridor and in an area it carved out that cuts off northern Gaza from the south, known as the Netzarim corridor
- It’s unclear if Israeli control of these corridors is included in a US-backed proposal that Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called on Hamas to accept
Israel’s demand for lasting control over two strategic corridors in Gaza, which Hamas has long rejected, threatens to unravel ceasefire talks aimed at ending the 10-month-old war, freeing scores of hostages and preventing an even wider conflict.
Officials close to the negotiations have said Israel wants to maintain a military presence in a narrow buffer zone along the Gaza-Egypt border it calls the Philadelphi corridor and in an area it carved out that cuts off northern Gaza from the south, known as the Netzarim corridor.
It’s unclear if Israeli control of these corridors is included in a US-backed proposal that Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called on Hamas to accept to break an impasse in ceasefire talks. Blinken, who is back in the region this week, said Monday that Israel had agreed to the proposal without saying what it entails.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says control of the Egyptian border area is needed to prevent Hamas from replenishing its arsenal through smuggling tunnels and that Israel needs a “mechanism” to prevent militants from returning to the north, which has been largely isolated since October.
Hamas has rejected those demands, which were only made public in recent weeks. There was no mention of Israel retaining control of the corridors in earlier drafts of an evolving ceasefire proposal seen by The Associated Press.
Hamas says any lasting Israeli presence in Gaza would amount to military occupation. Egypt, which has served as a key mediator in the monthslong talks, is also staunchly opposed to an Israeli presence on the other side of its border with Gaza.
What are the corridors and why does Israel want them?
The Philadelphi corridor is a narrow strip — about 100 meters (yards) wide in parts — running the 14-kilometer (8.6-mile) length of the Gaza side of the border with Egypt. It includes the Rafah Crossing, which until May was Gaza’s only outlet to the outside world not controlled by Israel.
Israel says Hamas used a vast network of tunnels beneath the border to import arms, allowing it to build up the military machine it used in the Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war. The military says it has found and destroyed dozens of tunnels since seizing the corridor in May.
Egypt rejects those allegations, saying it destroyed hundreds of tunnels on its side of the border years ago and set up a military buffer zone of its own that prevents smuggling.
The roughly 4-mile (6-kilometer) Netzarim Corridor runs from the Israeli border to the coast just south of Gaza City, severing the territory’s largest metropolitan area and the rest of the north from the south.
Hamas has demanded that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled the north be allowed to return to their homes. Israel has agreed to their return but wants to ensure they are not armed.
Why are Hamas and Egypt opposed to Israeli control?
Israeli control over either corridor would require closed roads, fences, guard towers and other military installations. Checkpoints are among the most visible manifestations of Israel’s open-ended military rule over the West Bank, and over Gaza prior to its 2005 withdrawal.
Israel says such checkpoints are needed for security, but Palestinians view them as a humiliating infringement on their daily life. They would also be seen by many Palestinians as a prelude to a lasting military occupation and the return of Jewish settlements — something Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners have openly called for.
Hamas has demanded a total Israeli withdrawal and accuses Netanyahu of setting new conditions in order to sabotage the talks.
Egypt says Israel’s operations along the border threaten the landmark 1979 peace treaty between the two countries. It has refused to open its side of the Rafah crossing until Israel returns the Gaza side to Palestinian control.
Are these new demands by Israel?
Israel insists they are not, referring to them as “clarifications” to an earlier proposal endorsed by President Joe Biden in a May 31 speech and by the UN Security Council in a rare ceasefire resolution. Israel also accuses Hamas of making new demands since then that it cannot accept.
But neither the speech nor the Security Council resolution made any reference to Israel’s demands regarding the corridors — which were only made public in recent weeks — and both referred to a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces. The US has also said it is against any reoccupation of Gaza or reduction of its territory.
Previous written drafts of the ceasefire proposal stipulate an initial Israeli withdrawal from populated and central areas during the first phase of the agreement, when the most vulnerable hostages would be freed and displaced Palestinians allowed to return to the north.
During the second phase, the specifics of which would be negotiated during the first, Israeli forces would withdraw completely and Hamas would release all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers.
The most recent drafts of the proposal — including one that Hamas approved in principle on July 2 — contain language specifying that displaced residents returning in the first phase must not carry weapons. But they do not specify a mechanism for searching them.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt, which have spent months trying to broker an agreement, have not weighed in publicly on Israel’s demands regarding the corridors.
An Israeli delegation held talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo on Sunday focused on the Philadelphi corridor but did not achieve a breakthrough, according to an Egyptian official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door meeting.
What happens if the talks fail?
Failure to reach a ceasefire deal would prolong a war in which Israel’s offensive has already killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents and destroyed much of the impoverished territory.
Palestinian militants are still holding some 110 hostages captured in the Oct. 7 attack that started the war, in which they killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israel has only rescued seven hostages through military operations. Around a third of the 110 are already dead, according to Israeli authorities, and the rest are at risk as the war grinds on.
A ceasefire deal also offers the best chance of averting — or at least delaying — an Iranian or Hezbollah strike on Israel over last month’s targeted killing of a Hezbollah commander in Beirut and a Hamas leader in Tehran.
Israel has vowed to respond to any attack, and the United States has rushed military assets to the region, raising the prospect of an even wider and more devastating war.
Blinken says Netanyahu confirmed truce support, presses Hamas
- Blinken says Netanyahu promised Israel would send team to talks scheduled to resume this week
- Israel has relentlessly pounded Gaza, killing over 40,000 Palestinians since October last year
TEL AVIV: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured him of support for a US proposal to bridge gaps on reaching a Gaza ceasefire, and pressed Hamas to agree.
Following three hours of talks with the prime minister in Jerusalem, Blinken said that Netanyahu promised Israel would send a team to talks scheduled to resume this week, mediated by Egypt and Qatar.
“In a very constructive meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu today, he confirmed to me that Israel accepts the bridging proposal. He supports it. It’s now incumbent on Hamas to do the same,” Blinken told reporters later in Tel Aviv.
“What I would say to Hamas and to its leadership is, if it genuinely cares about the Palestinian people that it purports to somehow represent, then it will say ‘yes’ to this agreement, and it will work on clear understandings about how to implement it,” Blinken said, a day after Hamas accused Netanyahu of obstructing the mediation efforts.
Hamas had called on mediators to implement a framework outlined in late May by US President Joe Biden. The movement said the bridging proposal “responds to Netanyahu’s conditions” and leaves him “fully responsible for thwarting the efforts of the mediators.”
But Blinken said: “The single quickest, best, most effective way to relieve the terrible suffering of the Palestinians that was instigated by Hamas’s attack on October 7 and the war that ensued is to complete this agreement.”
Blinken said he would travel Tuesday to both Egypt and Qatar and meet with the leaders of the two Arab nations, which have worked with the United States on a ceasefire plan.
He said he hoped to hear from the Arab partners the latest on Hamas’s position and he played down the militants’ criticism of the bridging proposal.
“We’ve seen public statements before where they don’t fully reflect where Hamas is,” Blinken said.
